Q: New iMac 27inch screen flickering/tearing/shutoff

Which model is it the i7 or i5 or regular and what video card 4600 or 4800 series with 512. Also know this some of you you will have the monitor go flicker and blank if you have an external monitor attached and lets say you leave your computer on over night but decide to turn of the other attached monitor and when you weak in the morning you weak the computer and turn on the other monitor that makes it go through the motions of flicker and blacking out while recognizing the monitor. I hope all of you aren't describing this phenomina. That would suck. Good day.

I guess I will wait till next year sometime in june where they will release the 30 inch imac with the 32 micron intell cpu and the 40 micron gpu and maybe 22 micron ddr 6 memory that will not even produce heat to feel warm. And it will also be a 64 core cpu. And the resolution will be 9600 by 3400. Ah just dreaming but it would be interesting to see how close I come with the specks. Oh forgot 6 tera hard drive. Oh and a blue ray that holds 500 gigs of data. Plus a corded multi surface mouse that doesn't eat battery for breakfast. What am I forgetting oh the touch screen. Also put some like 10 usbs and 6 firewire on this thing 2 to 4 on front or side so i can have easier time with flash and external hard drives. How about this an extra screen that slides out from inbetween to the side and a keyboard that folds down in front of the screen. And if you must have them wireless how about making the mouse have a recharge battery that charges when you somehow plug the mouse in the keyboard through some kind of prot hole like many wireless keyboards and mouses are stored it could be part of the base of the screen to plug both the mouse and the keyboard and have it charge so it can last up to about 4 months per charge. That would work.

Sonics 99:


Why do you want to fix it? If it's defective, return it. Apple is going to send you parts so you can take out the old and put in the new? I think Apple sent out limited parts when the first iMac came out. I don't think Apple will be sending out any parts for these computers unless to a designated agent who then gives it to you. If you do get the part(s) what is going to happen with the warranty? It's gone.

RMH7069,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. My wife and I have been out Holiday shopping. What fun that is. If you believe that, I have some very valuable seaside property in Arizona that I can let you have at a greatly reduced price. Ha!

I am very glad that you have not given up on Apple. I think when the smoke has cleared, you will be glad that you stayed the course. I will not recant my experiences with PC's because you have already "been there, done that", so I'll pass on that.

As to my experience with Apple hardware or software issues, unfortunately, I have absolutely no bad experience in that realm. This is the Gospel truth. What software issues I did have were caused by yours truly. Bend the Apple Rules and you will pay. And dearly, I might add.

As to the graphics cards, just from this forum, any so-called fix is quickly deemed moot by another newer "fix". For instance, someone posted that they connected a second monitor only to have it exhibit the identical symptoms as the primary monitor. It took no time for someone to point out that the screen issues must be due to the graphics card. Fair enough.

Later (or earlier, depending on when a person chimed into this thread), it was "discovered that it was the power cord that did not seat properly". This person later said he was wrong that was only a temporary fix. And, so the speculation goes.

As to the Genius's denying any knowledge of the problem ... putting myself in Mr. Apple's shoes, I think I would do the following. I would send out a "memo" instructing every Apple employee who makes contact the the buying public to say that they are "not aware of this problem", for the following simple reason. If each of them says something different (human's cannot help but do that) then each statement will race across the 'net which will only make matters worse. We have already read some of that here with some discounts being given yadda, yadda.

Finally, I really believe that we will hear from Apple next week. I am really sticking my neck out here, but the silence from Cupertino is beginning to hurt my ears. Going back to my first message to you, if they say they are aware of the issue, but have not found a solution , they will look very silly. However, from personal experience, when I worked on Mil-Spec projects (I am an electrical engineer), it was paramount that you purchase IC chips of the very highest quality and that they meet the very highest QA standards. Most of the batch runs for these chips may only be run once a year due to the quality controls built in. One of the standards is the wide temperature range these chips must usually meet. Mil-Spec requirements set these temp spec's in place and must be met by the manufacturer. They want a unit to function properly in Afghanistan as well as in colder climes. Ever wonder why so-and-so's auto alarm goes off for no reason? Or why it only goes off after a light rain? The reason is that the alarm manufacturer purchased the cheapest chips they could so they could compete the "Acme Co". So, QA? What's that? The consumer what's cheap stuff. Enjoy.

Point to all this is that if Apple does not have complete control over every chip that goes into each of their machines, then they have no choice but to demand (hope?) that i.e., the graphic's card folks have a stringent QA program in place to insure that the chips in their cards are the best money can buy. We are reading a lot about heat coming from the back of the new iMac's, well, heat affects circuit boards and each of the components soldered on that board. I have no doubt that all of these vendor's are completely aware of this. They have to know these things else they will not be in business for long. But again, this is not a perfect world and someone could have dropped the ball somewhere. Unfortunately, in this case the egg falls onto Apple's face because the Apple 'emblem is on the hood' of each of their machines.

If you stop to think about that for a moment, that is a fairly frightening prospect. A computer manufacturer strives to make the best product they can, yet someone else's product (ie, the graphics card) is faulty and causes the computer to malfunction. Then think about all the components that go into producing a computer. Most of us do not give this a second thought. We just want our 'stuff' to work as advertised, especially after we pay for it.

I sincerely hope that Apple will step up to the plate with a solution and the sooner the better for all concerned.

If you like you are welcome to PM me. I would also be more than happy to help you when you get your new iMac.

Phillip

Good news, everyone. I got a full refund today. My Week 45 i5 flickered four times in the past week and it went back. When I walked in, about four employees asked me "what's up" and ushered me to the genius bar. They then took my packaged iMac to the back to have a look. I told them that I doubt they'd see anything. So I waited, and pulled up this thread on one of the nearby iMacs to show them if needed. Less than two minutes later, the packaged iMac came out from "the back" and the manager was already refunding my credit card. The entire amount, to the cent. I know they couldn't have possibly unboxed and checked the iMac back there in two minutes, so I assume the technician is aware of the issue and didn't even bother to have a look.

So, while I'm dissappointed in Apple's quality control with this first round of iMacs, I'm impressed with their customer service. A full refund in less than five minutes.

Just got back from the Apple store. They gave another replacement. It's my 3rd iMac. So far everything is cool. No flickering. Hope it stays that way.

Karen, good luck to you. Although it will be very frustrating if we receive defective machines, Apple does stand by their replacement policy so other than inconvenience, it's not a big risk and the payoff is getting to use that beautiful machine sooner than later. My i7 W8948... should be here in a couple of days with the added uncertainty caused by some big storms in th Great White North. At least it's finally heading west instead of east on its travels with UPS.

p.hugo wrote:
Can anyone make a summary of how many iMac having flickering issue, week by week (production week)? Just to see, with time goes by, if the problem has disappeared in W48 or further on.
Apple should have this information (for sure), but it's not going to tell us (i think). Shall recover this information from this forum, it could be an interesting statistic (not complete, but realistic).
Thanks to everyone!

Summary can viewed here: Flickering Display Breakdown

Phillip,

Thanks for the gracious offer. I feel your pain regarding Holiday shopping and totally understand, so I guess that Arizona property is a no sale at this juncture!

I'm not an electrical engineer, but my biz requires products that are an assembly of several companies' parts and controls and a defect in one vendor's part can cause havoc for the end user, the seller and the manufacturer/brand's image, reputation and bottomline so I am with you on that one as we have endured such incidents. I know that if you google ATI graphics problems, it seems to show a history of heat related gpu/fan problems resulting in screen flickering in some of their cards dating back to 2005. I've had three PC's with ATI Graphics cards and one of them shorted out after a storm that fried things throughout the house despite UPS/surge protection, but they were all in Tower case PC's with monster cooling fans. That Apple hasn't solved this yet is what's most puzzling. Your prediction of an announcement next week would make me and many more posters on this forum happy.

Funny, I posted to the Windows XP forum today trying to find a solution to my "current" PC problem so I can limp thru until this Apple thing is resolved and I have received accusatory and condescending replies! One of the 1st computers I sat in front of was the Apple IIe and I fell in love with computing at that moment. I use my iPhone for as much browsing/communicating as I can to avoid the PC so I look forward to a full fledged Apple machine in the (I hope) not so distant future. BTW, the folks at the Apple Store told me the iPhone was known amongst themselves as the "crack"...as in the straw that breaks the Windows user's back to migrate to Apple.

I'll look you up if I run into any transition snags! I see you are in Chicago, my favorite city!

My wife doesn't need the power to run Photoshop and video editing/compiling stuff that I do as a hobby, just email, browsing and the occasional spreadsheet. I know this is OT, but can you recommend a "basic" Mac solution for her?

Edward,

Well I don't really want to go through the hassle of returning it, and possibly returning it multiple times like others here. Not really my thing. Would rather get the parts and repair it myself. At the end of the day the effect is no different. I could keep swapping them out and pray that I get one that works and doesn't exhibit this problem, and then still not even really know if it will do it down the road. Or I can simply replace the defective parts (once non defective parts are available that is and it is narrowed down more specifically to what is causing the problem).

Apple isn't really sending me the parts, but sending them to the Apple Store. I used to work for Apple and therefore know people I can just get the parts from and do it myself. I still have all of my Apple hardware and software certs so I can do repairs. So it won't be an issue with the warranty at all.

Is there are news from apple about flicking and is it necessary to wait for the software problem decision? or this is a hardware problem?

Is there somebody to do one test? I did it and i think after that flicking has gone. The test is: I started up my iMac in 64bit for a few days and now i think everything is ok with flicking. But i still have one problem: when i do brightness lower i hear some whistle from fan

P.S: And the left top of iMac is very hot.

Has anyone tried to play heavy graphics windows games or run windows? Does the flickering exist also?

I received mine yesterday and it was used for 12 hours in a row migrating files, installing programs and playing HD videos. No problems so far and it's an incredibly fast, beautiful machine.
I can see where the packaging and shipping can cause problems. It was shipped in an iMac box and then in a plain brown box with no markings such as Fragile or This Side Up.

W8949
27' i7
8 gigs
2TB

I know this thread keeps going and going and surely it will but thing just keep getting rehashed over and over. I know a lot of you guys feel you may have 'fixed' your flickering by reseting the PRAM, shutting down, changing the power supply etc. and I also understand anyone with an i7 doesn't want to go through the pain of returning a BTO Mac but the bottom line is that a series a manufacturing defects have occurred and wishful thinking isn't going to help anyone here. I've been through 3 iMac's and now I've just taken a refund while I watch the refurbished store patiently. If anyone is experiencing ANY issues with their new iMac you must take it back, it is your right as the consumer especially when you spend this kind of money to get a product that is in perfect working condition. As I said before wishful thinking isn't going to fix your iMac. Week 49,50 production models will be coming up, let keep our fingers crossed and hopefully these new machines will be sound.